"Bye Mzungu!" (From Uganda back to Kenya!)

Hello friends. I feel like I have not updated you in a while. We had a very busy week during which I wrote my final exam, I crossed a border by foot and visited some very historic sites and initiatives. (Jalesh.... if you read this, you were too slow to post this blog and I aparently got to a computer first... don't know how that happened :S)

The Final
For all of you writing a trillion mid terms right now - I just wrote my final exam. It consisted of testable material from a lecture given ONE day before and we had a module for another course worth 30 percent of our mark the morning of the final. Basically, I had like two minutes to study for the final. So no complaining allowed from you in Montreal! The program is definitely intense but I also think that everything really sinks in more since I am tested on my field work! Another perk is that, we wrote these exams in Jinja where our hotel is located right on the Nile. We watch sunsets over the Nile everyday and IT IS BEAUTIFUL.

In Uganda we have a massive green bus that says "Fruit of Faith" on the back of it and we are very very noticible. At one point we were stuck in traffic and about ten young children chased our bus down the street yelling "bye muzugu bye muzugu" for a good twenty mins which means: "bye white people", adamant to see us off in the style of true Ugandan hospitality.

 "Fruit of Faith"

The Border
After Jinja we drove back into Kenya and crossed the border by foot. IT WAS WILD. We were not allowed to take pictures or we would be arrested. Let me try and describe it to you. In the middle of a crowded parking lot type area, we had to unload our packs and surround them like elephants protecting our young so that no one would steal them. Then we had to put them on and hike through a "no mans land" into Kenya and onto our safari trucks. There were lots of begging children asking us for money, pushy men trying to sell us random drinks and all sorts of transactions taking place between the Ugandans and Kenyans. It was quite the experience.

Kisumu
The very same day that we crossed the border we went to visit the Millennium Development Village which was selected as a village to try and meet the millennium development goals (affectionately known as the MDGs). This village was kind of like a pilot project created by an economist to see if we can actually meet the MDGs using a specific strategy. This village had shocking stats. Previous to funding and help from the MDG funds somethibg like 35 percent of pregnant women had HIV and 49 percent of the population had malaria. They had ONLY two schools and one health center which was ill-equip. With the help of the project and Jeffery Sachs, they now have over thirty schools and nine health centers  and are actually becoming more and more sustainable in their agriculture and in supporting themselves financially as a group of villages -- all in just eight years.

Development is a hot topic of debate among our group. We are all trying to figure out what the role is of the global north in the global south and if we really "know" how to help move towards a sustainable future since in North America we continue the problem because of our unsustainable mindset. I am def learning a lot from my fellow CFSIAers. Today we are moving onto Mbita.

A PERSONAL SHEENA UPDATE: My clothes n getting pretty dirty n I haven't showered in a few days but we are all eating well (we have awesome cooks) and we are all constantly in good spirits. There was a bug going around our group but I am still healthy!! Such a difference from the beginning of my trip. Maybe its my indian stomach. Talk soon!


p.s. I KNOW you are all out there reading by blog but i really have very little motivation to post when I don't know if you actually are or not... So leave me comments. THANKS.
Love,
sheena